What "Reformed Christianity" Used to Mean

It amazes me how words can transform meaning so drastically. Take "google," the sound uttered by the young son of a mathematician seeking to come up with a name for 10^100, now the name of a culturally savvy technology giant. Or take the word, "crash;" probably originally an onomatopoeia describing the sound of a tree falling (or the like), this word has expanded to include the failure of abstract or technical systems that are supposed to function, like the economy or a computer, which may not include a recognizable sound. Many words, it seems, gain meaning as time progresses.

Unfortunately, some words lose meaning, like "Reformed Christianity." When a Christian today says that they're "Reformed," they usually mean that they're a Calvinist--i.e., they agree with the synopsis of soteriology described by TULIP, which was formed as a clarification of an aspect of reformed doctrine in response to a group of dissenters.

But the reformed worldview originally was so much more than this. Being reformed meant that you believed that all of human experience was sacred, under the sovereign care of Christ. Being reformed meant you valued people being able to read God's word in their own language. Being reformed meant that you believed that the world was created good, the world was corrupted by sin, and that the world was being redeemed by Christ. Being reformed meant that you believed that the word "world" meant the physical "world" of rocks and trees and skies and seas, the "world" of human beings, and the "world" of cultures and institutions that those people created. Being reformed meant that you believed there was no separation of human life into sacred and secular.

Abraham Kuyper summarized it well when he said, "There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!'"

That's what "Reformed" used to mean. I hope that we Christians in the academic world can reclaim at least some of this meaning, as our lives and ministries intersect with diverse people and institutions and ideas from all over the world.